If you are going to job interviews with just your resume you are way behind the times. Your resume is an important tool for getting a job interview, but it will never show prospective employers what it is really like to work with you.
A professional blog can help someone get to know you. Chris Brogan says “having a blog that shows your business potential beats having a resume.” And most telecommuters don’t have one.
There are lot’s of excuses:
- I don’t want to update something every week
- I’m not a writer
- I don’t have anything to say.
Don’t update your professional blog once a week. You don’t have to. The goal of your professional blog is not to create a following or sell ads. You professional blog is for people who want to see an example of your work.
Writing is an essential part of telecommuting. Karl Fogel, a founder of the Subversion revision control system, puts good written communication at the top of his list for what it takes to be a successful member of a distributed team. I dedicated an entire chapter of my book to being a better writer.
You do have something to say. You have impressive skills and projects you’re proud of. Write about them. Give enough information so that someone who isn’t familiar with your product or your company can understand them. Write about why you did what you did and why you are passionate about it.
Make your professional blog helpful to other people. Saying that you’re great isn’t very convincing; show them. Show something you can do that is helpful to other people. It doesn’t need to be very difficult, just make it clear and simple.
John Resig, the creator of the JQuery framework and a JavaScript evangelist for Mozilla, is a master of the professional blog. His blog at www.ejohn.org gives an impressive list of recent projects and blog posts. There are some large projects, but many smaller ones as well. You probably create potential small projects all the time. Write about them. It will help your career by showing what its like to work with you and demonstrating your writing ability.